Edge as place : building a community link in Boston's Chinatown

Abstract

How does one inhabit an edge with two sides that are different in culture, everyday life, and scale? How does one connect a physically fragmented community? How does one design a building that identifies with the Chinatown community without applying the usual "pagoda" kitsch? This thesis takes Boston 2000, a urban development plan for the Central Artery Project, as a starting point for an exploration on the above design problems with special attention paid to the roles urban context and cultural issues play on architecture.